Picking up nicely

Continuing the return to full strength.  (Written on Sunday evening, but not posted until Tuesday late morning, by which time I'm stronger still - I don't know why it failed to load on Sunday).  I'm at that stage where I'm frustrated that I'm not already fully better.  I think I'm doing well, but by the time I've done not very much I feel exhausted.  But all's good.  I've had a nice quiet weekend: hardly got rained on at all, didn't get too cold (and even enjoyed some sunshine, as these photographs prove) and didn't have to do too much.  The first half of December is a very good time for me to be ill, if there is such a thing as a good time, as we're quiet in the stable and everyone is here.  Later in the month people are on holiday and so I'm flat out, and when they return we're all flat out as we're bringing horses back into work.  But at present nobody is under pressure, even with me not doing much.

I didn't ride at all on Wednesday or Thursday.  On Friday I rode one (Solitary Sister).  Ditto Saturday, and I took Roy to the lunge ring on the Heath.  Today I rode Solitary Sister and Heaven Up Here.  And I'll do a bit more again tomorrow.  It's been very good as I've got a lot of writing and admin done as I've been spending less time outdoors than usual.  If things go to plan, we'll have two trips to the races this week (Sacred Sprite at Lingfield on Wednesday, Solitary Sister and Heaven Up Here to Chelmsford on Thursday) and I'm anticipating finding those easy enough.  And I'm looking forward to them - none of those three horses have run for this stable previously, so it'll be interesting to see how they fare.

It would be unrealistic to hold high expectations for any of them, but if we get three runs each showing a modicum of promise that would be good.  Very good, in fact.  (That, of course, is not guaranteed to happen).  Sacred Sprite has never raced, and I never expect much on a horse's debut.  The other two have raced previously (Solitary Sister for Richard Spencer, Heaven Up Here for Ed Vaughan) but not for a long time.  In Solitary Sister's case it's something like 14 months since she last ran.  And neither bears particularly inspiring form from when they did race.  But it'll be good to get them going, and we'll hope for the best.  Picks you up nicely when you've got something to look forward to.